Presence of the mouse mammary-tumor virus (mmtv) pol gene in breast-cancer.

ABSTRACT

We have used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect sequences related to the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) reverse transcriptase gene in DNA from breast cancer cell lines and an extensive series of breast tumors. Similar MMTV-related sequences were observed in DNA from normal tissues. The segments amplified by PCR showed over 90% homology to the nucleotide sequence of the MMTV pol gene and no significant differences were noted between the DNA from normal or tumor tissue. When the amplified DNA was used to probe Southern blots, a unique restriction fragment indicative of a single copy locus was detected in all DNAs tested, but the high background of hybridization suggested that many closely related sequences may occur in the human genome.